Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wafer production method for efficiently producing a wafer from a lithium tantalate ingot.
Description of the Related Art
A surface acoustic wave (SAW) device is formed such that a function layer is stacked on the surface of a wafer made of lithium tantalate (LiTaO3) as a material and is partitioned by division lines. Then, processing is performed along the division lines of the wafer by a cutting apparatus or a laser processing apparatus such that the wafer is divided into individual SAW devices. The SAW devices are used in a high frequency filter and so forth adopted in mobile communication equipment such as a portable telephone set, a personal computer or video media equipment.
Further, it is known that a wafer on which devices are to be formed is produced generally by slicing an ingot using a wire saw and the front and rear faces of the sliced wafer are polished to finish the faces each into a mirror face (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-094221).